by Coco Shepard ’27
February 14, 2025
Every year, the spring semester brings new classes, sports, and programs to USN. Since 2019, one of these exciting programs has been the Author in Residence program, where USN invites authors and poets to speak to students about their craft.
The Author in Residence program was created by English Department Chair Freya Sachs ‘00 to connect up-and-coming authors to USN students and the broader Nashville community, hoping to inspire young students and show the power of words and community. The program has rotated through high school, middle school, and lower school, engaging students at multiple levels to cover topics such as writing techniques, publishing, and poetry.
The inaugural author in residence was Jamel Brinkley, who published his debut novel, A Lucky Man, in 2018. A Lucky Man is set in New York City, where Brinkley was born and raised, and explores themes of masculinity, family, and relationships through the lens of nine unique stories, utilizing deeply nuanced prose to capture the raw truth of life in a world so highly complicated.
A Lucky Man received high praise from The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Review of Books, NPR Books, and The L.A. Times, among other news outlets and authors.
Brinkley’s 2019 visit was unexpectedly cut short by a day and a half, however. A Lucky Man was named a finalist for the Robert W. Bingham prize for Debut Short Story Collection at the PEN American Literary award, and Brinkley had to attend the award ceremony in New York.
Since his visit, Brinkley has published another book titled Witness in 2023. His second novel shares a few broad strokes in common with A Lucky Man. Once again a collection of stories of the flaws and nuances of humanity in New York City, Witness takes a different turn, choosing to uncover the importance of family histories and the conundrum of trust, as well as what happens when we fail to build relationships and care for the most important people in our lives.
Brinkley’s background in teaching made him a perfect candidate for the Author in Residence program. Today, Brinkley teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
The second Author in Residence visit was focused on middle school, inviting Andrew Maraniss to our community in 2020.
Maraniss spoke not only about the importance of literature and social issues, but also the process of editing. Seventh grade classes even got to give feedback on a book that was still in the publishing process.
When Maraniss visited USN, he had published two books, Strong Inside in 2015 and Games of Deception in 2019. Strong Inside is a biography of Perry Wallace, the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference in 1966. Strong Inside was a New York Times bestselling book that delves into the history of race in sports as well as Wallace’s life off the court as an engineering student and valedictorian. Games of Deception unpacks the story of the first USA basketball team competing in the 1963 Summer Games in Nazi Germany. It was named one of Amazon’s Top Books of 2019.
Since his 2020 visit, Maraniss has published five more books, two more sports biographies and three nonfiction elementary grade chapter books. In Singled Out, Maraniss recounts the life and career of Glenn Burke, who played for the L.A. Dodgers and became the first openly gay MLB player. Inaugural Ballers examines the first US women’s basketball team, which made its debut in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Maraniss’ elementary grade series, Beyond the Game: Athletes Change the World, has three entries so far, featuring WNBA star Maya Moore, LeBron James, and the late NFL player and U.S. Army veteran Pat Tillman.
Maraniss’ books serve as a reminder that sports are much more than just running around or passing a ball. Athletes have the reach and platform to change the world for the better, and sports books can be a great way to introduce kids to issues of social justice and activism.
The Author in Residence program was off to a strong start in 2019 and 2020. However, it was put on pause for the next two years due to COVID.
The program was revived in 2023 and pivoted back towards high school with poet Ed Roberson. Roberson was the first poet to visit for the Author in Residence program. He has written several books of poetry throughout his career. Notable awards include the Jackson Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, and an Academy of American Poets fellowship. Roberson is influenced by nature, history, and politics, and his life and travels across the US and South America.
Students had the chance to ask Roberson questions about his writing during both Lunch and Learn programs and in English classes during his two day visit.
Over 50 community members of USN and Nashville attended his public reading, where Roberson elucidated the meanings and stories behind his work, taking the time to speak with attendees afterwards.
In addition to sharing his own work, Roberson took a genuine interest in students’ work, offering advice and a unique viewpoint that framed poetry as a conversation between the author and the reader, or as a way to answer questions posed by the facts of real life events.
The 2024 Author in Residence visit took a different route than previous years. Instead of a single author, USN brought two poets from Project VOICE to interact with the middle and lower school divisions. Project VOICE’s goal is to utilize poetry to entertain, educate, and inspire. Since their founding in 2004, they have visited 30 countries to spread spoken word poetry to students in all levels of education.
Sarah Kay and Adam Falkner performed their poetry for lower and middle schoolers, as well as teaching workshops for grades 4-8. Their performance demonstrated that poetry doesn’t have to be boring or deep, but can be fun, creative, playful, and welcoming to younger ears.
In addition to workshops with middle school, Kay and Falkner held a session for educators, which was attended by teachers from USN and also from several other area schools. Bringing teachers and other educators into the Author in Residence program adds in another layer of community and connection through learning.
Sarah Kay, the co-founder and director of Project VOICE, has been writing and performing poetry since she was fourteen, and has published four books of poetry, with her fifth expected in April of this year. Little Daylight Left already has glowing reviews from the New York Times. Kay was also a TED speaker in 2011, with a YouTube video of her performance of two poems, “B” and “Hiroshima” garnering over 6.4 million views.
Adam Falkner has written two books, The Willies and Adoption. In both of his poetry collections, he speaks on topics such as masculinity, queerness, and race. In 2009, he was a featured speaker at former President Obama’s Grassroots Ball during the presidential inauguration. His work had also appeared in countless magazines and journals.
Alix Harrow, the Author in Residence for 2025, has written multiple short stories, novellas, and novels. Her debut short fiction, A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies won a Hugo award in 2019.
Harrow’s upcoming visit is scheduled for March 24-25. In addition to speaking to English classes, she will be hosting an Evening Class on March 24 for adults in the USN community. Registration information can be found at eveningclasses.org.
